Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes are the star of soirées the world over. Myriad colours, textures and flavours knock your guests’ socks off, but not before you’ve probably spent hours in the kitchen chopping, stirring, tossing and plating to his instructions. But one of the world’s most influential chefs and cookbook authors has discovered simple recipes can also be the most rewarding.

“A few years ago I was asked to do a special supplement with simple recipes and at first I thought, gosh, how do I make simple?” he laughs. “I took on the challenge and I soon realised that having a restraint like that made things really interesting.”

The challenge made him think about cooking differently. “When it came time to think of a new book I sat down with my team and we tried to think, what does simple cooking really mean?”

It turns out it depends who you talk to. Their research found simple cooking means something different to different people. The result is a cookbook with a system that caters to various definitions.

The word ‘simple’ becomes an acronym representing these various interpretations of simple cooking and the recipes are categorised accordingly: S for short on time; I for 10 ingredients  or less; M for make ahead; P for pantry; L for lazy; E for easier than you think.

“If I wanted to cook something in the morning for that evening, then I’d go to the recipes with an M for make ahead, which is really useful if you’re short on time and ingredients,” he says.

The book really captures the essence of easy cooking or ‘cooking with ease’, as Ottolenghi prefers to say.

“We really made sure that all the recipes are really doable in one way or another and break the perception that the recipes in my books are only for special occasions,” he says.

Those who have been intimidated by his recipes should perhaps look for the ‘easier than you think’ recipes.

“Sometimes you just read the title of a recipe and you think that’s too difficult before you even scroll down. You think, oh, I don’t have an ice-cream machine, or if it’s got professional terms that put people off, like confit, so you immediately think that’s very cheffy and it’s going to be too hard.

“But actually the commitment and challenge is not as bad as you think.”

The main challenge for Ottolenghi was overcoming his own perceptions of what constitutes simple cookery.

“When you cook for a living you kind of lose perspective on what is simple. But for some people three components might be okay but four is too much,” he says. “But I want people to understand that you can get quite a lot of flavours, big flavours even with simple cooking.”

He also points out that home cooks can make their own choices when they look at recipes.

“Sometimes I think people look at recipes and think you have to stick strictly to them, but, really, with a lot of books and recipes there’s a lot of flexibility. Recipes are guidelines, suggestions even – you can alter them how you wish.”

His home life played a role in the manifestation of the Simple concept, too. “I have two young kids and the one thing that I often think about is category P, which is pantry,” he says.

“I come home and I haven’t really had much time to think about what I’m going to cook, so in the pantry I always have rice, couscous, pasta, and I rummage at the bottom of the fridge for some herbs. So for me it’s a very useful category.”

One thing he’d never taken into account when writing his cookbooks was the washing-up.

“We actually considered how much commitment you need for each recipe, how much washing-up, how much shopping. This was the challenge once we had the concept.”

The length of ingredient lists also came under scrutiny. He thought about how to break down recipes to fewer ingredients but still get a great result.

“Consider all the different styles of cooking all over the world – think about the number of ingredients in a Thai or Indian curry, where you start with a lot of ingredients to create the base,” he says.

“Then you think of something like Italian cooking which is taking very few ingredients that are very, very good. I don’t think there’s one right way or wrong way; they’re just different approaches to cooking.”

Ottolenghi knows he has connected with at least one home cook.

“It’s definitely going to work for my sister,” he says. “When I told her I’m doing this book called Simple she said ‘Finally I can cook your recipes’.”

Find a selection of Ottolenghi’s new recipes from his cookbook here.